For we do not have a high priest Who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. -- Hebrews 4:15
Opening Thought:
Let This Mind Be in You
Paul writes in Philippians 2 about the mind of Christ, how He was willing to set aside His deity in order to become a man, be a servant and die a sinner's death. We are challenged to understand this mind and make it our model for life.
As Jesus walked to the edge of the Jordan River, His mind was fixed. Althought totally God, He had become totally man. We may not totally understand this great truth, yet the message of humility and obedience that He demonstrates is very clear.
John 2:17 tells us of the "zeal" Jesus had for His Father's mission, and elsewhere we hear how He had "set His face" (Luke 9:51) for Jerusalem. His mind was fixed, never distracted, clearly following through on the commitment had made on our behalf. As He approached John the Baptist in the water, the mind was clear .
The beauty of the mind of Christ, His passion and love, His purity and justice, His sense of mission and commitment -- while we can never fully comprehend much less replicate this, yet we are challenged to seek His mind. Only by the Holy Spirit working this in us can we expect to see such a lofty measure accomplished to any extent.
Study Notes
The Cast is Poured
1. No More Private Life
- We don't have information about his years before the Baptism. He likely was at home with Mary, perhaps carrying on his father Joseph's carpentry trade, likely in Nazareth.
- Picture Jesus as He walked out of His carpentry shop and turned towards the Jordan. He moved from growing up to reaching out, from expecting to delivering.
- This was the last act of His private life. Beginning at the Baptism, every action He took would be under intense public scrutiny and have eternal ramification.
2. Jesus' First Public Act - Baptism
- From Luke 3:23, we know He was about 30 years old.
- This was viewed as a very significant event; note that it is covered in all 4 gospel writers.
- He arose from the water announced, blessed, and empowered by the Father and Holy Spirit.
- The picture of baptism - humble submission. The Bible doesn't really explain why He needed to be baptized. We see the picture of His identifying with the people He came to reach, and a foreshadowing of His death and resurrection. Today we carry on that tradition in baptism of new believers, not to accomplish any portion of salvation's work, but to express our obedience to the Savior, and to memorialize His death and resurrection.
- Additional scriptural insights:
Isaiah 53:12, "poured himself out"
2 Corinthians 5:21, "made to be sin"
Matthew 3:15, "to fulfill all righteousness"
3. From the heavenly to the earthly
- Driven into the Wilderness
1. The Wilderness: A picture that reminds us of the wandering Israelites, struggling in their sin. Jesus was alone, exposed to the world's degrading and debilitating influences.
2. Driven: He was obedient to the Father. The Holy Spirit purposed this to happen, although it was perhaps not Jesus' desire. This begins the tortuous, negative side of Jesus' experience on the earth -- culminated in the Garden, "let this cup pass from Me", and on the Cross, "why have You forsaken Me?"
3. God broke the seal, as it were, of His precious gift, and began the pouring out process. - Victory based on confidence
1. The first man, Adam, failed in his confrontation with Satan.
2. The Last Adam, as Jesus is referred to (1 Cor. 15:45), faced Satan in confidence and victory.
3. His confidence was in the Person and Word of God, as evidenced by His reliance on quoting verses from Deuteronomy. Striking that these passages are taken from the context of Israel's wilderness experience.
4. Jesus dragged Satan into the light of Truth. Both were then revealed for who they truly were. - Jesus was truly tempted, although as both Perfect Man and Perfect God, He was incapable of actual sin. He genuinely experienced temptation, but His purity and deity were undeniably confirmed.
4. Three Ways to Fall in Temptation
The temptations Jesus experienced, and His responses, help us to understand the godly response to sin that will move us towards Christlikeness.
- Depend on physical sustenance -- While there is nothing wrong with wanting some bread, Satan challenged Jesus to use His power for His own benefit. The challenge was to shift His perspective to one of physical well-being and pleasure.
- Test the leading of God -- Satan sought to break down Jesus' faith, lead Him to disobey. Note how he disguises a dare by calling it faith. In truth, to challenge God shows a total lack of faith.
- Let the power of the world compromise you -- Satan will do anything to distract and derail our worship of the True God.
5. The Right Perspective
Often we need to just review what we already know to be true -- God is in control. We are His precious children. He wants us to be strengthened and to stay faithful.
When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man, and skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all His heart to create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed...
Watch His methods, watch His ways! How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him, and with mighty blows converts him
Into trial shapes of clay which only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends but never breaks when his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses, and which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him to try His splendor out...
God knows what He's about.
(Unknown Author)
